Paulie the Ranger

21/05/2024

I'm going to be taking my ranger hat off for a while. I also come from public service. I need to make time for that hat again. Enjoy these videos and experiences. They are snapshots of goodness in the world. Be well, my fellow rangers!

19/05/2024

Turkey Trust

18/05/2024

I suppose this largely goes out to my Minnesota friends. I remember in 1990, walking 9 miles round trip on a trail to see two Trumpeter Swans. They were among a few in the entire state. It was well-worth the hike to see them. Ok. So, what? Well, if you live pretty much anywhere near any body of water in Minnesota, this largest of North American waterfowl is now incredibly common year-round. I hear them in a pond less than a mile from us most evenings. One can even take a short drive to see them eating in farm fields. I’m not an expert on what happened, but this is a mega success story that I’ve been privileged to witness. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

15/05/2024

The American Crow is a common bird throughout its range. They highly resemble the Fish Crow. The American is about 17.5” long. The Fish is about 15.5 inches long. That’s pretty close in size to differentiate them by sight alone. Another factor are their calls, but that is still similar. The American go “caw” and the Fish go “car” or “ca-ha.” Where ranges overlap, it would take some careful listening to crows to identify the right species. These are big birds. They are among our largest song birds (Passerines). The only one larger is the Common Raven at a whomping 2 feet long! That’s a far cry away from a chickadee which is also a songbird. Crows are highly intelligent. In one experiment, they were tested eating from a full container. They ate normally from the top. As the food ran lower in its level, the crow grabbed a stick and used it as a tool to grab more to eat. The ability to use tools is seen in only a few animals, primates being the most successful. I would love to see this ingenuity someday. They are also experts remembering individual people. They remember the good and bad of us. I suppose scarecrows don’t work in many instances because it just sits there and the crow doesn’t see them as threats. Well, that just my theory. Crow are amazing birds! Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

15/05/2024

So. A neighbor this morning tells me about the evidence of something’s midnight snack. 😁The culprit was a raccoon. 🦝 I found coffee grounds in my bird bath. Counterintuitively, raccoons like to wash their food and also keep their feet clean. The trash will go out in the morning from now on, ha. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

15/05/2024

The male Indigo Bunting is absolutely beautiful. Its feathers act as prisms reflecting that amazing blue color. Without sunlight, the feathers are drab and dark colored. You can see these changes in the video. Feathers of this type are also present in other birds like hummingbirds, Wild Turkeys, and Mourning Doves too. The feathers seem almost metallic. Indigo Buntings are not related to bluebirds even though they are a blue bird. Bluebirds are actually in the thrush family which includes American Robins. Buntings are seed eaters. Their beaks are perfectly designed to eat small seeds. Putting out millet or commercial mixed-seed (which usually has millet and a couple other small seeds) will attract them for closer views. Their summer range is basically east of the Rockies. Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, “It has occurred as a vagrant in Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Denmark, Ecuador, Germany, Iceland, Ireland, Netherlands, the Netherlands Antilles, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Serbia and the United Kingdom.” Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

14/05/2024

The Baltimore Oriole. Yeah. Just look at it. This is a male, identifiable because of those amazing orange feathers. The females have a lighter orange-yellow coloring. They are related to blackbirds, as can bee seen by their overall size, structure, and bill shape… and that’s were most of the similarities stop. Orioles love fruit but, like most songbirds, love insects. This one is eating suet. This is the first time I’ve seen one eat suet. But it makes sense to me because it is basically protein like insects. At this stage of the year around my neck-of-the-woods, insects are still not in large numbers for many birds to completely thrive on. Besides, this guy has made an incredibly long trip to get to my window. Orioles are commonly found in the summer across the United States east of the Rocky Mountains. However, they winter in Central and northern South America. That’s an incredibly long flight. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

14/05/2024

A little treasure… and mystery. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors, my fellow nature detectives!

14/05/2024

A treasure in the woods… and a mystery. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors, my fellow nature detectives!

13/05/2024

The Black-capped Chickadee is an incredibly familiar bird to any seed feeder. I think they are the best of any North American bird at finding food. They are so good at it that even other species of bird recognize their ability and will follow chickadees to food sources. In this video, we see a different feeder behavior than I’ve previous posted. When there are finches, or really anything else at the feeder, chickadees come in, grab one seed (black oil-type sunflower being the favorite of nearly any feeder bird), fly onto something sturdy, and peck away at it until the seed can be eaten. With no other animals at the feeder, we see a different behavior. It will sit and grab a seed and eat it right at the feeder. It’ll do this a few to several times before it decides to take off or is interrupted. To me, it seems to be because it doesn’t burn up as much energy this way. I often think that it must use so much valuable energy flying back and forth to the feeder. But feeling safe, alone at the feeder, is the reason why it zips away at other times. They make a number of calls. It’s namesake, “chickadee-dee-dee” is its most familiar one. I’ve included some references below regarding this call an others translating what they are saying or trying to accomplish. The pictures regarding the chickadee vocalizations are from the following source: Stokes Nature Guides, “A Guide to Bird Behavior Volume 1,” Iauthored by Donald Stokes. The map illustration is from Roger Tory Peterson’s “A Field Guide to the Birds East of the Rockies.” This species of chickadee is also the first bird I had ever hand tamed, and I’ve done it many times. “So, Paulie the Ranger, how can I hand tame on?” That’s a fantastic question. Here we go! Once a feed source is established, sit by the feeder. Stay there a few minutes or maybe do it for a while and come back the next day. Depending on their availability of food, they are far more likely to come to a person faster. Place your hand out flat near the feeder with the sunflower seed in your palm. Having your hand flat shows that it is not a trap. Also, be as motionless as possible and try not to swallow when it is near. Swallowing is a sign that you want to eat it. Of course we need to swallow, but try and do it between its visits. Again, it’s only a couple seconds that they are at the feeder to grab a seed when you’re present. If they don’t just come to your hand, bring your hand in slower to actually touch the feeder or even block the feed. That sounds aggressive, and I suppose it is, but they will need to make the choice of whether hunger or trust is the most important thing. With the other things you’ve done, usually trust is established pretty fast. And they “Hooray!” you are feeding a chickadee from your hand or head or lap or anywhere you’d like them to land. In my hand or wrapped around my finer, their little feet feel so nice. When I would put seed on top of my cap, they’d often go to the front of the bill and lean over to look at me. It’s all pretty fun and cool. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

09/10/2023

With leaves falling (or largely gone) one can see a clearer view of the night sky. The picture on the left I took last week. The picture on the right shows the proximity of the constellation Cassiopeia to the Andromeda Galaxy. I knew the constellation because it looks like a big “W” or “M” depending on the time of the year and night. Right now it is in the East. I wanted to find the Andromeda Galaxy… and I did. We revolve around our star, the Sun. A galaxy is a large spiral of billions of stars. We live in the Milky Way Galaxy. On a really clear night sky, you can look above and see across the swirl (like the side of a frisbee) of our galaxy. It gets its name because the many stars are so numerous and concentrated, it looks like spilled milk. Andromeda (or also known as M31) is the closest galaxy to ours. It is over 2 and a half billion light years away! So what’s that mean? If you turned on a flashlight aimed toward Andromeda, it would take that long for the LIGHT to get there. That is a crazy distance away. I hope you too get a chance, at some point, to see Andromeda by tracking it down from Cassiopeia. Enjoy our great outdoors!

06/10/2023

An update on our Woodchuck (Groundhog) activity. They are in a deep, deep sleep. They’ll make up around March or so. This Google info is about Massachusetts. In Minnesota, it is likely sooner than October considering our climate. I knew they went into true hibernation, but I didn’t think it would be so early. It explains why I haven’t seen one in a few weeks. Enjoy our great outdoors!

01/10/2023

Being awoken by a Pileated Woodpecker eating at the window, is truly a beautiful thing.

29/09/2023

It is about 2 AM. Albeit my phone captures low light conditions, I thought I would try to capture the near-daytime look from the Moon. In the last picture, at the top, one can see the North Star. An absolutely marvelous sight of Our Great Outdoors. 🌕

20/09/2023

If you simply want to relax, here is a deer that was feeding in front of the house tonight. She chews, if you listen carefully, and looks around. The video is 1 minute and 15 seconds long. I don’t say a word. Enjoy our Great Outdoors... which includes resting and dreaming.

17/09/2023

Do cattails meow?

15/09/2023

13/09/2023

Locust poctus!

11/09/2023

Wally, the new resident of Gwen’s former home. He’s been incredibly shy. This picture was take at about 15 feet away. It’s the closest I’ve been to him. But I’m moving around and he keeps eating. He doesn’t like me talking, but so do many people. 🦫

10/09/2023

The Yellowjacket. They are mostly noticed in the fall. If you’ve gone to a corn feed or had a picnic or were drinking a non-water beverage; you have likely been harassed by them. The difficulty is that they like to use rodent burrows or old logs as their hives. You typically will not see the hole, until it’s too late. They aggressively defend their home. If you see them swarming, get away as fast as you can, like duh. But this will keep them from chasing you. They have house repairs that are more important. I stepped on one as I walked in a grove of trees yesterday. Luckily, I was wearing blue jeans and got away quickly. I was stung on the top of my finger, and luckily nowhere else. You can usually brush them away from your face when there’s a single one. Step on the their hive “door,” and things get nasty. Be careful out in Our Great Outdoors; always remember that you are never alone.

05/09/2023

This is a first for me to witness. It is pretty much self-explanatory. However, by no means is this story over. Garter snakes do not have venom and, in this battle, that mouth is open to its fullest. Moreover, toads are powerful. From my point of view, it is an even fight between reptile and amphibian. I love learning from the Great Outdoors.

04/09/2023

Deer Paulie,

02/09/2023

If a tree falls…

01/09/2023

31/08/2023

“A picture’s worth a thousand words.” It is absolutely true when identifying nearly anything in the Great Outdoors. The bird on the left and the one in the middle is the same individual. Notice the black neck on the left one? It’s not black at all; it’s a shadow. When it looked into the sunlight, “poof!” It’s neck is not black. The other reason this period of picture-taking was important was in identifying the species. I couldn’t identify it. Well, that’s also how field guides (or the like) also help. I thought it looked like a vireo, but it was too big. Then I thought it was a Scarlet Tanager, but they don’t have white anywhere on them. But I looked it up anyway and found out it was a “first winter” female one. Basically, born this year from how I understand the terminology. Next year, it’ll have all of the markings of a fully feathered female. Taking pictures far surpasses notes for me when identifying species. Even if you took a lousy pic, it’s still is usually better than notes or your memory alone. I once proved this on a field trip in a college bird class. The professor said one thing, but my imperfect picture proved her wrong. I probably shouldn’t have done that in front of my other classmates. 😉📱📸

30/08/2023

Red Maples turning colors on some limbs. I did not use a filter for this picture. They are naturally this brilliant. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors!

28/08/2023

I hope you’re sitting down for this newsflash. The lower left woodchuck (groundhog) we called “Wally” (and genders are unmarked) because we saw him with Gwen. The upper right one I have seen the most and has been called “Gwen.” As I looked through pictures of our wonderful woodchucks, I noticed something interesting - we have two other visitors. Each square is a different individual based on their markings. Considering the time I’ve spent trying to get closer, I didn’t pay attention to the appearance of their faces. No wonder sometimes “Gwen” was tame and other times really shy. There are two other “Gwens.” Detail can be everything when enjoying Our Great Outdoors. Any suggestions on two other names? 😁 🦫🦫🦫🦫 NOTE: A couple of my comments below. Thanks for reading!

25/08/2023

Gwen the Groundhog had a visitor. His name is Wally the Woodchuck. She didn’t chase him off; however, there’s a small distance between them that she perhaps finds acceptable to her. I’d like to see them close to each other if that distance can be closer. Below shows the differences in their markings, mainly it is the white above Wally’s nose and eyes. It’s a party at Hetland Haven!

18/08/2023

There is hard-packed soil in this area. This an example of the incredible power of plants. Various plants, including bushes and trees, can grow in the crevices of rocks. With just a little nutrients, water, and the plant’s force as it grows, can actually chisel away rock faster than water alone. Here is a swifter example of that amazing ability. I believe this plant is sorghum. It’s usually left over when I throw out mixed seed. Animals can be so picky. Then again, I don’t want to eat it. Enjoy Our Great Outdoors! 🌱

14/08/2023

“Leaves of three”… are really nasty!